


Collateral Damage

by WhisperOfWarmth



Series: Fodder for the Future [5]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), kylux - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Star Wars Setting, Armitage Hux - Freeform, Armitage Hux Has Issues, Armitage Hux Needs A Hug, Armitage Hux/Kylo Ren Fluff, Bedroom Conversations, Captain Phasma, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Humor, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Fluffy Ending, I Ship It, I Will Go Down With This Ship, Idiots in Love, Kylo Ren - Freeform, Kylo Ren Angst, Kylo Ren Backstory, Kylo Ren Has Issues, Kylo Ren Needs a Hug, Kylux - Freeform, LGBTQ Character, LGBTQ Themes, Late Night Conversations, Love, Love/Hate, M/M, Marital Problems, Marriage, Married Kylux, Post-Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Romantic Fluff, Same-Sex Marriage, Short & Sweet, Short One Shot, Short Story, Soft Kylux, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015) - Freeform, The Force Awakens, True Love, supreme leader snoke - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-30
Updated: 2017-12-30
Packaged: 2019-02-24 01:47:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,725
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13203111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhisperOfWarmth/pseuds/WhisperOfWarmth
Summary: Get married, they said.It'll be fun, they said.Not so.Endeavoring to spend your entire life with someone is a far step from the more fun, easy-going aspect of simply having sex and visiting one another, as Armitage Hux and Kylo Ren are very quickly finding out.Once the honeymoon phase is over, the fighting begins. Enough fighting to make them question whether they've made the biggest mistake of their lives.





	Collateral Damage

"Where are you going?"

"I have training with Snoke."

"When will you be back?"

Kylo turned around and glared at him.

"What are you, my mother? I'll be back when we're done, Hux, same as always."

Hux didn't look up from his datapad, although Kylo could see that his hands had tightened around it hard enough to showcase his white knuckles.

"Fine. When you come home, please remember to take off your boots by the door, BEFORE you track mud all over the carpet again."

Kylo rolled his eyes, and while Hux's back was turned, made an obscene gesture at him.

"And Ky?"

"Yes, your Majesty?!"

Hux looked up, and the expression in his eyes was very somber, almost pained.

"I was just going to say, Love you."

"Oh," Kylo replied, feeling bad that he had reacted as such. Yet instead of apologizing, or expressing the sentiment back to Hux, he merely said "See you later," and closed the door behind him.

As he walked down the corridors towards the training grounds, he tried desperately to shake the awful, heavy feeling from the pit of his stomach. Lately that feeling had been following him everywhere, and he was sick of it.

He and Hux, after a long and extremely passionate 'courtship', had decided to get married one day, while coming back from a mission. 

They had returned to tentative congratulations, doubtful looks, and probing questions from friends and coworkers alike.

Both had assumed that since they spent so much time together, and had such a powerful sexual connection, marriage would be an easy, logical step for them to take.

But they seemed to be the ONLY ones who thought that. Snoke, in particular, had given each of them several long lectures, trying to dissuade them from their intended course of action.

But they dismissed the concerns of those around them, and had gone ahead and done what both of them thought they desired.

And it was absolutely lovely, at first. Their honeymoon phase lasted for several months, and they were more than over the moon for each other. 

Eventually, though, reality settled in, and both men began to question, more and more, whether they had made a serious error in judgement.

And the worst part was, everybody had warned them that this would likely happen. They were both possessed of an alpha personality, and oftentimes that won't work well in a relationship.

And it seemed that everyone had been correct. They fought endlessly, and about the most arbitrary of things.

Kylo thought, more than once, that they should have just maintained their sexual relationship without going so far as to pursue marriage.

"Why buy the cow, when you can get the milk for free?", his friend, Phasma, had asked him beforehand.

"What's a cow?"

"A Terran animal that gives milk. Basically the expression means, you're already getting one thing, why go any further than that?"

Love.

THAT was why he and Hux had taken it further: love.

Kylo could not (and didn't want to) picture himself with anybody else. And the thought of Hux being with someone else actually made his stomach hurt. Marriage, therefore, had seemed like the most logical step to take.

But living with the General was a huge difference from simply visiting, or spending the night. Hux was brutally organized and detailed, with every single aspect of his (and now, Ren's) life. Spontaneity was not in his programming, nor was the concept of fun. He planned out nearly every second of their lives, from work to outings to mealtimes to sleeping. 

Kylo got a look at Hux's datapad, once, and was blown away to see that he even had a strictly allotted time for _sex_.

Which, time-restricted or not, seemed to be the only thing they did well together.

Hux was finding it hard to deal with Kylo's constant mood swings, his rash way of dealing with external strife, and his complete disregard for order, or even the most basic concepts of common sense.

They never talked about it, the difficulties they were having with each other. Rather they let things fester inside of them to the point of boiling over, and slow resentment was building for one another.

It was a standstill. 

There appeared to be no going forward, and no going back.

And neither was sure just how much longer they could take it.

\---

"Maker, what happened?", Hux asked as he came further into the room.

Kylo had returned from training with Snoke. He had been exceptionally distracted tonight, which allowed Snoke to get the upper hand in his apprentice in battle. He had cut him in the side several times, leaving long, painful wounds. Now he was in the refresher, attempting to staunch the flow of blood pouring from his skin.

"Slashed during combat training," he said, dumping yet another blood-soaked cloth into the sink.

"Do you want me to take you to Med Bay?"

Kylo shook his head, pressing another cloth against the wound.

"Are you sure? You're losing a lot of blood."

"I'm going to pick up all the rags and send them to the laundry, okay? Don't worry your pretty little head, Hux," Kylo told him irritably.

Hux's eyes went wide, and he seemed surprised by Kylo's statement. 

"That's _not_ what I'm concerned about, here, Kylo. At all."

Kylo just shrugged. The bleeding had finally slowed, and he affixed a gauze pad to the wound, carefully sealing it in place with tape.

Not particularly wanting to touch the bloodied rags, he levitated them into the clothes receptacle.

"I'm going to wash my hair," he told Hux as he went back into the bathroom. 

"Alright. Do you want something to eat when you come out?"

"No. I think I'll just go to bed after," Kylo replied, before shutting the door.

Later on, Kylo sighed with exasperation as he tried to get comfortable in the bed. He could tell his fidgeting was annoying Hux, but he really didn't care.

"Can we please take some of these blankets off?", Kylo asked Hux, sighing.

This was, sadly, the same argument they had practically every night. Hux preferred to sleep fully clothed, and with what seemed like a thousand blankets piled on top of the bed. Kylo preferred to sleep near-nude, and with just one (if even that) thin blanket.

"You know I get cold," Hux said, turning over on his side.

Kylo moved over until he was right next to Hux, and pulled him backwards, roughly, into his arms.

"That's what I'm supposed to be for, though. Keeping you warm."

He slowly started to kiss the back of Hux's neck, moving his hand down the redhead's leg.

But Hux just groaned and shook him off. 

"Not now, Ren, please. I'm tired. And if you insist on holding me, I'll have to insist you put on clothes, first."

"What? Why?!"

"Because your skin gets all hot when you sleep, and you end up sweating all over me. That's why."

Kylo rolled back to the other side of the bed, his feet hitting the floor. He grabbed the topmost blanket from the bed and stalked out into the living room, to sleep on the couch.

The couch was huge, but not particularly soft. It took him a while of trying to adjust comfortably, but he eventually succeeded. He closed his eyes, and right away, a light pressure on his chest made him open them again.

Millicent.

Hux's annoying, overweight orange cat.

Kylo was not much one for having any kind of pets; but Hux loved this creature, and treated it as if it were his baby, rather than an animal.

And, despite all his actions to dissuade it otherwise, the cat, loved Kylo. It would follow him around, mewing and pawing at his legs. Sitting at his feet.

Shedding fur all over his robes.

And, on nights when Kylo slept on the couch (which was happening more and more frequently), she would sleep on his chest.

"Get off me," he muttered, giving the cat a firm push with his hand.

She didn't budge.

He sighed and began to grudgingly stroke the cat behind the ears. She purred contentedly.

"At least YOU seem to want me around," he told her, closing his eyes.

"She's not the only one," came a voice from behind him.

Hux walked slowly into the room, his eyes adjusting to the dark.

"Down, Milly," he said, and the cat immediately leapt off of Kylo and to the floor. Hux pulled down the blanket and scooted himself back into Kylo's arms, then repositioned the cover over them both.

The two were silent for a while; then Kylo said, timidly, "We are having problems."

Hux nodded. "Yes, we are."

"So what do we do?"

"Maybe, Kylo, we should consider -- divorce?"

"I hate that word. It's so . . . cold. So ugly. And, to me, it implies failure. I hate that."

Hux nodded in agreement.

"You're right. Except sometimes in life, the smartest thing you can DO is admit when you've made a mistake, and recoup your losses, before it's too late. I don't want it to be too late with us. I don't want us to get to the point where we're too bitter and angry to even be FRIENDS, anymore."

Kylo sighed, and tightened his embrace around the redhead.

"It's just . . . I don't really handle separation well. I survived it the first time, but I think a second time would kill me."

"First time? What do you mean?"

"You don't want to hear that story."

"Yes, I do. Communication, remember? Tell me."

"When I was a boy," Kylo began, speaking softly, "My parents put me into 'normal' school. Normal, meaning not my uncle Luke's Jedi academy. I was five years old, and had yet to show any kind of aptitude for using the Force. So they just assumed I didn't have any. And I think they were relieved, about that. That I would grow up normal, and not with the Skywalker curse."

"I was happy in that school, Hux. I had friends, I did well in all my classes. I was just, Ben Solo. Not the kid with the famous rebellion leader parents, or the legendary uncle, Jedi Master Luke Skywalker. Just, Ben. I was happy."

His voice got lower, and he found himself clutching Hux more tightly, as he came to the next part of his story. 

"When I turned 7, things changed. Slowly at first, so slow that it was hard to tell just how much was changing. The first thing I noticed was that I could hear others' thoughts. I would say 'Huh?' or 'Excuse me?' a lot, because I thought people were talking to me. Then I started to notice my moods changing, all the time changing. Happy to sad to angry back to happy, all in the blink of an eye."

"And then came one day. THE day, I call it. My mother and father were going to take me on a day trip to Coruscant, to see the performers there. They took forever getting ready, and just when they finally came out, my mother got a holo from one of her assistants, saying she needed to attend an emergency meeting of the senate for something or other. So we couldn't go."

"That must have been disappointing," Hux said, quietly.

Kylo nodded. "It was. And it was like, all of a sudden, I felt something burst out of me. Like, like hands springing from my chest and into the open air. All of the lights in the room exploded, at the same time. Ceiling light, the light over the front door, the lamps on the two end tables by my father's chair -- the glass shattered everywhere."

"Mom and dad just stood there, in shock, staring at me. And then, mom said, so quietly that I could hardly hear her: 'You have the Force, Ben.'"

"The _way_ she said it, Hux; it was like her worst fears had come to life. And her face . . ."

He trailed off, having to stop and gather himself before continuing.

"By this time, I had progressed enough to be able to pick up on feelings, a little bit. And I could feel that my mother was terrified. And that terrified ME."

"My father was different. He wasn't scared, he was disappointed. I could feel that, and it hurt. I felt as though I had disappointed him, even though I had done nothing to bring this on myself."

"Mom sent a message to her assistant that she wasn't able to make the meeting. Then she had my father call Luke. He came over that night, and the three of them sat up for hours, talking by the fire."

"Within a week, they pulled me out of school, and sent me to Luke's temple. It was awful. Everyone else had started training at 4 or 5, and everyone had their set group of friends. I was a newcomer, and a late-start Force user. And I couldn't get away; unlike the other school, where you went home at the end of the day, we students lived at the temple, in dorms. The only times we went back home were for holidays, or family occasions."

"My poor baby," Hux said, softly. He gave Kylo's hand a squeeze. "That sounds like torment, my dear."

Kylo nodded. "It felt like it. And Luke was harder on me than his other students, because he knew our family's bloodline, and our high susceptibility to the Dark Side."

"The only person in my life who ever made me feel normal, who made me feel like my abilities were an amazing gift, not a debilitating curse, was Snoke. And you know how that turned out," Kylo said, smiling ruefully. "I came here, and I was finally at a place where I feel that I have control of my life. And then something else awful happened."

"What?", Hux asked, confused.

"I met you," Kylo said, with a warm smirk. "I met you, and you turned me inside out. You gave me the two greatest gifts I've ever received in my life: your friendship, and your love."

Here he paused, kissing the back of Hux's neck, before going on.

"My father and I were never really close, you know. He didn't really teach me much, other than technical and mechanical skills. But something he said to me one time, always stuck with me. He said that if in your life you find a person you feel you can't live without, _**don't** live without them_. Period. Do whatever it takes to get them, and to keep them."

Now he gently turned Hux around in his arms, so they were facing each other.

"The point of my very long, sad story, is this: I feel like I can't live without you. So I won't. I refuse to."

Hux was extremely surprised, to find that he was crying. Unscheduled wetness leaked down his cheeks, and he lifted a shaky hand to wipe them away.

"I had no idea you cared that much about me, Ky," he said huskily. "I knew you loved me, but, the kind of love you're describing, I don't deserve that."

"No," Kylo said, shaking his head, "Stop that. That's your father talking. We need to let that voice die, Hux."

Hux was silent for a long while, then he took hold of Kylo's hand and squeezed.

"I deserve you, and you deserve me. And if we're having problems, well, so do all marriages. We are going to work them out. Starting with sleeping in the same BED, and not this kriffing couch."

He got up, and pulled Kylo with him to their bedroom.

As he watched, Hux pulled all the blankets off the bed, then rearranged the cover setting so that his side had most of the blankets, leaving Kylo with his desired one.

"That looks rather messy, General," Kylo said, teasing him. At the same time he went to the closet and pawed out actual pajamas for him to wear, rather than sleeping naked.

"Messy, but practical, Hux replied, as they both got into bed.

"Kind of like us."

Hux nodded in agreement. Kylo put his arms around him and held him, drifting off to sleep.

For once, for the first time in a long time . . . he felt hopeful about their future.

**Author's Note:**

> Very short, most likely will be used as a piece of something larger. Going into my Fodder for the Future collection.


End file.
